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The Dark Energy Survey (DES) has released its final results after six years of scanning the southern sky. We are one step closer to understanding the force tearing the cosmos apart. For all the time, money, and telescopes humanity has used, scientists are still asking a fundamental question: What is dark energy?

Buried deep in the early universe, "monster galaxies" churned out stars at furious rates. New high-resolution imaging reveals there is no single way to build a giant. Between 10 and 12 billion years ago, some galaxies were absolute powerhouses. These ancestors of today's giant ellipticals formed stars at rates that dwarf our Milky Way. But what drove them to grow so violently?

As the Dark Energy Survey releases its final results, we discuss the legacy of the project and the future of cosmology with pioneers Josh Frieman and Risa Wechsler.

Like a recording artist with a legendary history, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has released its definitive collection of cosmic hits. The richness of the Chandra Source Catalog is illustrated in this image of the region around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Spanning just 60 light-years across—a pinprick on the sky—Chandra detected over 3,300 individual X-ray sources.

For a long time, scientists assumed that Earth's water was delivered by asteroids and comets billions of years ago. New analysis of lunar rocks casts doubt on this old theory. This coincided with the Late Heavy Bombardment (ca. 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago), a period when planets and bodies in the solar system experienced a much higher rate of impacts.

Between the birth of a star and the settling of a solar system lies a chaotic "teenage" phase. ALMA has just captured the sharpest family album of these violent, dusty years. A faint, sparse ring of icy debris beyond Neptune. It's the quiet aftermath of a chaotic youth.

The universe is breaking our models. Two methods of measuring expansion give two different answers. A new theory suggests ancient magnetic fields are the missing key. Early Universe (CMB): When we look at the oldest light (Planck satellite), the math says the universe expands at 67 km/s/Mpc.

After analyzing 669 million galaxies, the Dark Energy Survey has released its final report on the forces ripping our universe apart. Dark Matter is invisible, but it has mass. Mass bends light. By measuring the slight distortion of millions of background galaxies, DES created a map of the invisible scaffolding of the universe.

Scientists are using the "echo" of light to map the dusty structures surrounding supermassive black holes, revealing a complex mix of graphite and silicate grains. Quasars flicker. When the central black hole swallows matter, it flares brightly in optical light.

Why is Io a volcanic hellscape while Europa is an icy ocean world? New research proves they didn't evolve that way—they were built that way from the start. Did Io start out wet like Europa, only to have its water boiled off by volcanic heat and Jupiter's radiation over billions of years?

Astronomers have found a massive cluster of galaxies hiding in plain sight. Obscured by their own creation—dust—these giants are forming stars at rates that challenge our understanding of the universe. The Paradox: Young stars emit brilliant ultraviolet light. But they form inside dense clouds of dust.

Scientists have reverse-engineered evolution to rebuild an ancient enzyme. By putting it inside living bacteria, they are viewing Earth's past—and the future of finding aliens—through a new lens. The Target: Nitrogenase. Without this enzyme turning air into food (ammonia), life as we know it wouldn't exist.